diff --git a/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md b/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
index b730d6f3..23621150 100644
--- a/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
+++ b/.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
@@ -3,4 +3,3 @@
 - [ ] Pull request touches only one file (or a set of logically related files with similar changes made)
 - [ ] Content changes are aimed at *intermediate to experienced programmers* (this is a poor format for explaining fundamental programming concepts)
 - [ ] If you've changed any part of the YAML Frontmatter, make sure it is formatted according to [CONTRIBUTING.md](https://github.com/adambard/learnxinyminutes-docs/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md)
-  - [ ] Yes, I have double-checked quotes and field names!
diff --git a/.github/workflows/lint.yml b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
index 4db0c300..5ab9bbdc 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/lint.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/lint.yml
@@ -11,8 +11,18 @@ jobs:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     steps:
       - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-python@v5
+        with:
+          python-version: '3.13'
+      - run: pip install -r lint/requirements.txt
       - uses: ruby/setup-ruby@v1
         with:
           ruby-version: '3.2'
       - run: gem install mdl
-      - run: mdl . --ignore-front-matter -r MD003,MD011,MD023,MD027,MD028,MD035,MD037,MD038,MD039,MD047
+
+      - name: Files are UTF-8
+        run: ./lint/encoding.sh .
+      - name: Lint Markdown
+        run: mdl . --ignore-front-matter -r MD003,MD011,MD023,MD027,MD028,MD035,MD037,MD038,MD039,MD047
+      - name: Lint frontmatter
+        run: ./lint/frontmatter.py .
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index 3d4d3b4e..e501a91a 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -31,13 +31,6 @@ review them more effectively and/or individually.
      language in question.
    * Keep articles succinct and scannable. We all know how to use Google here.
 * **Use UTF-8**
-   * For translations (or EN articles with non-ASCII characters) please ensure
-     your file is UTF-8 encoded.
-   * Leave out the byte-order-mark (BOM) at the start of the file (in Vim, use
-     `:set nobomb`).
-   * You can check if the file contains a BOM on Linux/Unix systems by running
-    `file language.html.markdown`  You will see this if it uses a BOM:
-    `UTF-8 Unicode (with BOM) text`.
 
 ### Header configuration
 
@@ -48,29 +41,32 @@ called frontmatter.
 The following fields are necessary for English articles about programming
 languages:
 
-* **name** The human-readable name of the programming language
-* **contributors** A list of [author, URL] lists to credit
+* `name`: The human-readable name of the programming language
+* `contributors`: A list of [*author*, *URL*] lists to credit, *URL* is optional
 
 Other fields:
 
-* **category**: The category of the article. So far, can be one of *language*,
+* `category`: The category of the article. So far, can be one of *language*,
   *tool* or *Algorithms & Data Structures*. Defaults to *language* if omitted.
-* **filename**: The filename for this article's code. It will be fetched, mashed
+* `filename`: The filename for this article's code. It will be fetched, mashed
   together, and made downloadable.
 
+Translations should also include:
+* `translators`: A list of [*translator*, *URL*] lists to credit, *URL* is optional
+
 Non-English articles inherit frontmatter values from the English article (if it exists)
 but you can overwrite them.
 
 Here's an example header for Ruby:
 
 ```yaml
-*--
+---
 name: Ruby
 filename: learnruby.rb
 contributors:
     - ["Doktor Esperanto", "http://example.com/"]
     - ["Someone else", "http://someoneelseswebsite.com/"]
-*--
+---
 ```
 
 ### Syntax highlighter
diff --git a/ca/groovy.md b/ca/groovy.md
index c9e73e6f..3efa82bc 100644
--- a/ca/groovy.md
+++ b/ca/groovy.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 filename: learngroovy-ca.groovy
 contributors:
     - ["Roberto Pérez Alcolea", "http://github.com/rpalcolea"]
-translations:
+translators:
     - ["Xavier Sala Pujolar", "http://github.com/utrescu"]
 ---
 
diff --git a/de/markdown.md b/de/markdown.md
index f89e65f6..ccde3c71 100644
--- a/de/markdown.md
+++ b/de/markdown.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 contributors:
     - ["Dan Turkel", "http://danturkel.com/"]
-translators :
+translators:
     - ["Frederik Ring", "https://github.com/m90"]
     - ["Philipp Fischbeck", "https://github.com/PFischbeck"]
 filename: markdown-de.md
diff --git a/es/elixir.md b/es/elixir.md
index adf524c3..29d8720d 100644
--- a/es/elixir.md
+++ b/es/elixir.md
@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@ contributors:
     - ["Joao Marques", "http://github.com/mrshankly"]
     - ["Dzianis Dashkevich", "https://github.com/dskecse"]
     - ["Ryan Plant", "https://github.com/ryanplant-au"]
-translator:
+translators:
     - ["Adrian Carrascal", "https://github.com/acarrascalgarcia"]
 filename: learnelixir-es.ex
-
 ---
 
 Elixir es un lenguaje funcional moderno construido sobre la máquina virtual de Erlang.
diff --git a/es/git.md b/es/git.md
index 5415de66..7dbf0f81 100644
--- a/es/git.md
+++ b/es/git.md
@@ -2,9 +2,8 @@
 filename: LearnGit-es.txt
 contributors:
     - ["Jake Prather", "http://github.com/JakeHP"]
-translator:
+translators:
     - ["Raúl Ascencio", "http://rscnt.github.io"]
-
 ---
 
 Git es un sistema de control de versiones distribuido diseñado para manejar
diff --git a/fr/elixir.md b/fr/elixir.md
index ce236fff..b9f35d4b 100644
--- a/fr/elixir.md
+++ b/fr/elixir.md
@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@ contributors:
     - ["Dzianis Dashkevich", "https://github.com/dskecse"]
     - ["Ryan Plant", "https://github.com/ryanplant-au"]
     - ["Ev Bogdanov", "https://github.com/evbogdanov"]
-translator:
+translators:
     - ["Timothé Pardieu", "https://github.com/timprd"]
 filename: learnelixir-fr.ex
 ---
+
 Elixir est un langage de programmation fonctionnel moderne reposant sur la machine virtuelle BEAM, qui héberge aussi Erlang.
 Il est totalement compatible avec Erlang mais dispose d'une syntaxe plus agréable et apporte de nouvelles fonctionnalités.
 
diff --git a/groovy.md b/groovy.md
index 66978cbc..6937b180 100644
--- a/groovy.md
+++ b/groovy.md
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 ---
 name: Groovy
-filename: learngroovy.groovy
 contributors:
     - ["Roberto Pérez Alcolea", "http://github.com/rpalcolea"]
 filename: learngroovy.groovy
diff --git a/it/php-composer.md b/it/php-composer.md
index ce250d36..75659e8e 100644
--- a/it/php-composer.md
+++ b/it/php-composer.md
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 ---
 contributors:
     - ["Brett Taylor", "https://github.com/glutnix"]
-translator:
+translators:
     - ["Agostino Fiscale", "https://github.com/agostinofiscale"]
 filename: LearnComposer-it.sh
 ---
diff --git a/lint/encoding.sh b/lint/encoding.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..5fe3e1a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lint/encoding.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+check_encoding() {
+    file="$1"
+    encoding=$(file -b --mime-encoding "$file")
+
+    # Check if the encoding is neither UTF-8 nor US-ASCII
+    if [[ "$encoding" != "utf-8" && "$encoding" != "us-ascii" ]]; then
+        # Print the file path and encoding
+        echo "Error: $file has encoding $encoding, which is not utf-8 or us-ascii"
+        return 1
+    fi
+
+    # Check for UTF-8 BOM
+    if [[ "$encoding" == "utf-8" ]]; then
+        if head -c 3 "$file" | cmp -s <(echo -ne '\xEF\xBB\xBF'); then
+            echo "Error: $file contains a UTF-8 BOM"
+            return 1
+        fi
+    fi
+
+    return 0
+}
+
+export -f check_encoding
+
+# Default to current directory if no argument is given
+directory="${1:-.}"
+
+find "$directory" -type f -name "*.md" -print0 | xargs -0 -P 8 -I {} bash -c 'check_encoding "$@"' _ {}
diff --git a/lint/frontmatter.py b/lint/frontmatter.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..972227ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lint/frontmatter.py
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import re
+from pathlib import Path
+import yaml
+import yamllint.config
+import yamllint.linter
+
+
+def extract_yaml_frontmatter(file_path):
+    """Extracts YAML front matter from a Markdown file."""
+    with open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8") as file:
+        content = file.read()
+        matches = re.match(r"^(---\s*\n.*?\n)---\n", content, re.DOTALL)
+        if matches:
+            return matches.group(1)
+        return None
+
+
+yaml_config = yamllint.config.YamlLintConfig(
+    """{
+        extends: relaxed, 
+        rules: {
+            commas: disable,
+            trailing-spaces: disable,
+            indentation: disable,
+            line-length: disable,
+            empty-lines: disable
+        } 
+    }"""
+)
+
+
+def lint_yaml(yaml_content):
+    """Lints YAML content using yamllint by sending it to stdin."""
+    problems = []
+    for p in yamllint.linter.run(yaml_content, yaml_config):
+        problems.append(f"{p.line}:{p.column}    {p.desc} ({p.rule})")
+    return "\n".join(problems)
+
+
+def validate_yaml_keys(yaml_content, allowed_keys):
+    """Validates that the YAML content contains only the specified keys."""
+    try:
+        data = yaml.safe_load(yaml_content)
+        if not data:
+            return "Empty YAML front matter."
+        extra_keys = set(data.keys()) - set(allowed_keys)
+        if extra_keys:
+            return f"Invalid keys found: {', '.join(extra_keys)}"
+        for key, value_type in allowed_keys.items():
+            if key in data:
+                if not isinstance(data[key], value_type):
+                    return f"Invalid type for key '{key}': expected {value_type.__name__}, got {type(data[key]).__name__}"
+                if isinstance(data[key], list):
+                    for item in data[key]:
+                        if not isinstance(item, list):
+                            return f"Invalid type for item in key '{key}': expected list, got {type(item).__name__}"
+                        elif not item:
+                            return f"Invalid item in key '{key}': found empty list"
+                        elif not isinstance(item[0], str):
+                            return f"Invalid type for item[0] in key '{key}': expected str, got {type(item[0]).__name__}"
+                        elif len(item) == 2 and not isinstance(item[1], str):
+                            return f"Invalid type for item[1] in key '{key}': expected str, got {type(item[1]).__name__}"
+                        elif len(item) > 2:
+                            return f"Invalid length for item in key '{key}': expected 1 or 2, got {len(item)}"
+    except yaml.YAMLError as e:
+        return f"Error parsing YAML: {e}"
+    return ""
+
+
+def process_files(path):
+    """Processes either a single file or all Markdown files in a directory."""
+    if path.is_dir():
+        pathlist = path.rglob("*.md")
+    else:
+        pathlist = [path]
+
+    has_error = False
+    allowed_keys = {
+        "name": str,
+        "where_x_eq_name": str,
+        "category": str,
+        "filename": str,
+        "contributors": list,
+        "translators": list,
+    }
+    for path in pathlist:
+        yaml_content = extract_yaml_frontmatter(path)
+        if yaml_content:
+            lint_result = lint_yaml(yaml_content)
+            key_validation = validate_yaml_keys(yaml_content, allowed_keys)
+            if lint_result or key_validation:
+                if has_error:  # don't prepend newline to first error
+                    print()
+                print(path)
+                if lint_result:
+                    print(lint_result)
+                if key_validation:
+                    print(key_validation)
+                has_error = True
+    return has_error
+
+
+def main(path_input):
+    """Determines if the input is a directory or a file and processes accordingly."""
+    path = Path(path_input)
+    if not path.exists():
+        print(f"Error: {path_input} does not exist.")
+        return 1
+
+    return process_files(path)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    import sys
+
+    path_input = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "."
+    has_error = main(path_input)
+    sys.exit(1 if has_error else 0)
diff --git a/lint/requirements.txt b/lint/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..29c0e827
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lint/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+yamllint
+pyyaml
diff --git a/ru/elixir.md b/ru/elixir.md
index 4403d005..a2ed4279 100644
--- a/ru/elixir.md
+++ b/ru/elixir.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ contributors:
     - ["Joao Marques", "http://github.com/mrshankly"]
     - ["Dzianis Dashkevich", "https://github.com/dskecse"]
     - ["Ryan Plant", "https://github.com/ryanplant-au"]
-translator:
+translators:
     - ["Ev Bogdanov", "https://github.com/evbogdanov"]
 filename: learnelixir-ru.ex
 ---
diff --git a/tests/encoding.rb b/tests/encoding.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index a0b3b184..00000000
--- a/tests/encoding.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,32 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env ruby
-require 'charlock_holmes'
-$file_count = 0;
-markdown_files = Dir["./**/*.html.markdown"]
-markdown_files.each do |file|
-  begin
-    contents = File.read(file)
-    detection = CharlockHolmes::EncodingDetector.detect(contents)
-    case detection[:encoding]
-    when 'UTF-8'
-      $file_count = $file_count + 1
-    when 'ISO-8859-1'
-      $file_count = $file_count + 1
-    when /ISO-8859/
-      puts "Notice: #{file} was detected as #{detection[:encoding]} encoding. Everything is probably fine."
-      $file_count = $file_count + 1
-    else
-      puts "WARNING #{file} was detected as #{detection[:encoding]} encoding. Please save the file in UTF-8!"
-    end
-  rescue Exception => msg
-    puts msg
-  end
-end
-files_failed = markdown_files.length - $file_count
-if files_failed != 0
-  puts "FAILURE!!! #{files_failed} files were unable to be validated as UTF-8!"
-  puts "Please resave the file as UTF-8."
-  exit 1
-else
-  puts "Success. All #{$file_count} files passed UTF-8 validity checks."
-  exit 0
-end
diff --git a/tests/yaml.rb b/tests/yaml.rb
deleted file mode 100644
index 0ed918e0..00000000
--- a/tests/yaml.rb
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,21 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env ruby
-require 'yaml';
-$file_count = 0;
-markdown_files = Dir["./**/*.html.markdown"]
-markdown_files.each do |file|
-  begin
-    YAML.load_file(file)
-    $file_count = $file_count + 1
-  rescue Exception => msg
-    puts msg
-  end
-end
-files_failed = markdown_files.length - $file_count
-if files_failed != 0
-  puts "FAILURE!!! #{files_failed} files were unable to be parsed!"
-  puts "Please check the YAML headers for the documents that failed!"
-  exit 1
-else
-  puts "All #{$file_count} files were verified valid YAML"
-  exit 0
-end
diff --git a/tr/git.md b/tr/git.md
index 3c2cbf96..4d3d0ce6 100644
--- a/tr/git.md
+++ b/tr/git.md
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ contributors:
     - ["Jason Stathopulos", "http://github.com/SpiritBreaker226"]
     - ["Milo Gilad", "http://github.com/Myl0g"]
     - ["Adem Budak", "https://github.com/p1v0t"]
-    
 filename: LearnGit-tr.txt
 ---
 
diff --git a/zh-cn/qt.md b/zh-cn/qt.md
index 46de3dfc..c7dae11a 100644
--- a/zh-cn/qt.md
+++ b/zh-cn/qt.md
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ contributors:
     - ["Aleksey Kholovchuk", "https://github.com/vortexxx192"]
 translators:
     - ["GengchenXU", "https://github.com/GengchenXU"]
-    
 ---
 
 **Qt** Qt是一个广为人知的框架，用于开发跨平台软件，该软件可以在各种软件和硬件平台上运行，代码几乎没有变化，同时具有本机应用程序的能力和速度。虽然**Qt**最初是用*C*++，但也有其他语言的端口: *[PyQt](../pyqt/)*, *QtRuby*, *PHP-Qt*, 等等.